Emergency braking arrangement for high-speed suspension railway



Jan. 18 1927-.

, r F. KRUCKENBERG ET AL EIERGENCY'BRAKING ARRANGEMENT FOR HIGH SPEEDSUSPENSION RAILWAY Filed Kay 14.- 1926 Patented Jan. 18, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANZ KRUCKENBERG AND CURT TEDEFELD, OF HEIDELBERG, GERMANY; SAIDSTEDEFELD ASSIGNOR TO SAI D KRUCKENBERG.

EMERGENCY BRAKING ARRANGEMENT FOR HIGH-SPEED SUSPENSION RAILWAY.

Application filed May 14, 1926, Serial No.

This application is related to application, Serial No. 4,574, filedJanuary 24, 19:25, which includes a disclosure of the present inventionsubstantially the same as the present application.

The invention is intended to provide braking arrangement for high speedsuspension cars moving with a velocity of 200 to 300 M. P. H. Thereforethe common railway brake with shoes acting on the tire is inadequate. Ifwe would brake the running wheel at full speed in this manner both wheeland rail would be unduly stressed and an undesirable roughening of thesurface and unequal wear of both parts would result.

In the case of an emergency itis possible, that the ordinary brakeswould be incapable of bringing the car to a standstill quickly enough,in this case a special rail brake is brought into action.

This emergency brake shall be used in the case of the other brakingarrangements failing and when the braking of the car must be as severeas possible. These rail brakes must be separated from the running gearsso that they can be used in every case. It consists in this invention ofa pair of shoes con tracting together above and below the rail; andoperated by mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic or other means. Thedissipation of the heat resulting from this sliding in this brake systemis adequately carried out because at the comparatively high speed theshoe continuously comes into contact with a cold friction surface, i. e.the rail. The mounting of the shoes on the car is so made that-they canfollow the movements of the car as it oscillates on the springs of therunning ear relative to the rail. This can be done by carrying the shoesin vertical guides or at one end of levers, the other end of which ismoved by mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic or other means.

If the running gears are so damaged, that they can no longer support thecar their work must be taken over by other means. For this purpose nearthe wheels shoes are provided on which the car can fall if a wheelbreaks. To alleviate the resulting shock and those experienced duringsliding on the shoe, springs are provided between these shoes and thecar.

This arrangement can be made so that the car, should the end inconsequence of a failure of the running gear fall onto a shoe, will109,158, and in Germany August 29, 1923.

be supported nearly in the normal horizontal position after a fewoscillations.

To prevent unnecessary weight'the rail brakes and this safety device canbe combined in one mechanism. Further it can be arranged when the railbrake and safety de vice are combined that the rail braking i. e. thepressing of the lower shoe against the rail can be done automatically.This can be done for instance by means of the shock caused by the cars,falling ontothe safety device so that the shock operates by means of apneumatic arrangement all the braking arrangements simultaneously,whereby the car is brought to a standstill as quickly as possible.

In the accompanying drawing these fundamental principles are showncarried out by mechanical means. The drawing is an isometric orperspective View of the device. The brake shoes 16 which are above andbelow the rail 17 are connected by means of leaf spring systems 18 tothe members 19. These leaf springs are secured by the stirrups 20 sothat with the brake off the shoes cannot chatter owing to the vibrationsof the car. Another point in this arrangement is that the shoes have acertain amount of play in three dimensions, so that if the shoes shoulddescend on the rail at an angle or out of center no bad effect isexperienced.

Both the upper and lower surfaces of the rails are curved and the brakeshoes 16 are correspondingly curved, thus permitting a sidewise movementof the brake shoes on the rail. Leaf spring system 18 is pivoted by aclosed eye at one end to an arm on the member 19 and at the other end issimply hooked over a second arm on this member. As the closed eye of thespring leaf 21 is at the forward end of the shoe, the brakin force canbe applied without danger of bin ing of the friction surfaces and thesliding shoe is stabilized in its motion on the rail.

The screw threaded spindle 22 extends through the upper member 19 (whichbears against the leaf spring system) and a corresponding screw threadedspindle operates the lower member carrying the lower leaf spring system18 and the lower brake shoe 16. The brakes16 are brought into operationby means of a suitable mechanism (not shown), controlled from thedriving compartment which rotates these screws to force the respectivebrakes downwardly and upwardly against the rail, this specific operatingmechanism forming no part of this invention.

On further rotation of the spindles 22 the springs 18 are furtherdepressed and the shoes more firmly pressed on the rail, until the arm23 rests against the middle of the spring 18 so that the spindle 22cannot be turned any more. Meanwhile the brake shoes'can follow theoscillations of the car on the running gears, since the members '19sliding in the guides 24, of the supporting frame 25 permit the shoes acertain degree of freedom of movement. This supporting frame 25 isslidably mounted in a projecting frame 26 which forms an integral partof the cars framework. Under normal running conditions frame 25 has norelative move ment with respect to supporting frame 26, since it issupported and held in position by trigger 30, the upper end of saidtrigger-being held by the action of coil spring 31in frictional contactwith the central portion of the spring 27 which under normal operatingconditions is tensioned downwardly so that the central portion is in thelowermost position. The leaf spring 27, which is fastened to the carbody is normally held out of action by the tensioning screw 28 and isprovided with a collar 29 which presses against a trip-lever 30 carriedon the car. The upper cross-bar of the frame 25 has a projecting armwith a downward extension 35 and the lower cross-arm has a similardownward extension 36 integral with the collar 29, which in turn restson the trip-lever 30. All these parts only come into action if the upperbrake shoe 16 acts as a safety device.

In the case of the failure of one of the running gears 15 such as byspring breakage that part of the weight of the car previously carried bythe running gear 15 is carried by the brake shoe and the frame 25; theleaf spring 27 which is tensioned exactly to this load by means of thetrigger 30 and the tensioning screw 28 is deflected by the shocksufficiently to release the trigger 30. This is released by the actionof the small spring 31 and the car now hangs freely sprung about theapproximate normal running position by the leaf spring 27 the frame 25being guided on the guides 32 integral with the projecting frame 26. a

From the foregoing description, the operation of the device will bereadily understood. In the ordinary emergency application of the brakesthe screw threaded spindles, or some equivalent devices, are turned bymechanism under control of the operator, and the upper and lower brakeshoes are forced into contact with the upper and lower surfaces of therail. This braking mechanism is carried by the frame 25 slidably mountedon a part of the car body 26 and this frame is normally supported byresting on a. trip-lever '30. If any accident should occur to therunning gear, the car -body tends to sink at the particular portionaffected, which brings the upper brake shoe 16 into contact with therail, thereby braking the car, and upon still further sinking of the carthe projectin member 23 of the slidable brake mounting 19 contactswiththe arm 35 of the slidable' frame 25. At this stage further downwardmovement of the braking elements'lo and 19, the frame 25, the collar 29,and the center portion of spring 27 to which it is attached, becomesimpossible and the position of these parts is fixed relative to theremainder of the car. The rest of the car at this stage continues tofall but against the resistance exerted by spring 27, which is adaptedto maintain the car in an approximately normal position on the railsunder such conditions. The flexing of the spring 27 as the weight of thecar is thrown thereon is sufficient to allow the trigger 30 to snap intoa horizontal position due to the pull of coil spring 31.

The brake shoes and their attached parts therefore normally operate asan emergency brake, and in case of accident to the running gear as asafety device for supporting the car.

Whatwe claims is:

1. A combined braking and safety device for high speed suspensionrailway cars comprising brake shoes for engaging the'upper and lowersurfaces of the rail, means on the car for supporting and operating saidbrake shoes, said means being movably mounted in a frame slidablyconnected to the car body, means for supporting the frame in normaloperative position, and spring means interposed between said frame andsaid frame supporting means whereby the car may be maintained in anapproximately normal position on the suspension rails upon an accidentaldownward movement of the car body.

2. A combined braking and safety device as claimed in claim 1 in whichthe frame supporting means comprises a spring and a trip-lever.

3. A combined braking and safety device as claimed in claim 1 in whichthe brake shoes have surfaces curved to correspond to the upper andlower surfaces ofthe rail.

4. A combined braking and safety device as claimed in claim 1 in whichthe brake shoes have surfaces curved to correspond to the upper andlower surfaces of the rail, the spring of the brake shoe beingpivotallymounted at one end and having play at the other end whereby the brakeshoes can center themselves on the rail.

5. A combined braking and safety device as claimed in claim 1, in whichthe device is so arranged that upon accidental operation the upper brakeshoe will rest upon the rail and support the car.

IOU

6. A combined braking and safety device for high speed suspensionrailway oars comprising spring mounted brake shoes for engaging theupper and lower surfaces of the rail, means on the car for supportingand operating said brake shoes, said means being vertically movablymounted in a frame connected to the car body, said frame beingvertically slidably secured within a second frame rigidly secured to thecar body, means for supporting the. vertically slidable frame in normaloperative position, and spring means interposed between said verticallyslidable frame and said frame supporting means whereby the car may bemaintained in an approximately normal position on the suspension railsupon an accidental downward movement of the car body.

7. A safety device for high speed suspension railway cars comprising aframe integral with the car body, a frame member slidably suspended insaid integral frame, a spring secured to the car body, means forsecuring the slidable frame member to said spring, and means secured tothe slidable frame member and adapted to engage the suspension rail uponaccidental downward movement of the car body whereby the car body may besuspended in an approximately normal running position on the suspensionrails by said spring.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures.

FRANZ KRUCKENBERG. CURT STEDEFELD.

